I listened to Day One of the Ram Dass Open Your Heart in Paradise Retreat on Maui today (you can tune in on ramdass.org too!) and Ram Dass says the political situation, it’s perfect.

That sentence might be hard to read. Perfect may not be the first word that comes to mind with the election results. The words I’ve heard have been quite the opposite— pathetic, scary, tragic, terrible.

I fully acknowledge the possibility of pain, the atmosphere of fear, and the hearts hurt by the election results. Time will tell what is to come, but so will you.

Donald Trump was elected. With whatever stories and small chances and fear-driven speeches and swing states that got us here, it happened. Everything little thing lined up for this unexpected result to occur. It is a product of the state of the USA political system, it is a product of reality, it is real, and therefore it is perfect.

Whatever feelings you currently have— feelings of hurt, fear, social action, sisterhood, religious equality — let them come up. They are perfect. They are here, now. They are bringing you alive. They are bringing you towards greater involvement. They are kindling a fire that will guide us towards where you thought we were, and where you know we will be.

The election results reveal the status of Americans (of the USA) as a whole —not coastal progressive Americans, not young Americans, but Americans. This is not because everybody agrees with the results… far from it. But the results paint a picture of where we are at— a key piece of information for building towards better than we hoped we’d be.

As Lama Surya Das wrote, “If we are not here now, we cannot be there then.” So stay here for a moment. Listen. Feel. Find Love.

We didn’t vote. We didn’t listen to each other. We are sick of it. We are over the system. We are a big country. And We are asleep.

Yes we watched the debates, followed the election results closely, judged other Americans, maybe made some calls or social media shoutouts in favor of our candidate, but overall we have been asleep. We got here. Somehow, through the primaries, the last 4 years, the last 240 years of the USA, we got here, to a place of fear, disappointment, discrimination. Imagine the odds, yet here we are.

How is this perfect?

It is perfect because it is. Because somehow we have arrived here. And suddenly we are awake.

We have awakened to the situation at hand. Awakened to what we deem important. Awakened to how we want to treat each other. Awakened to what we believe. Awakened to what we need to do…who we want to be.

Who is to say how all this shall unfold, nothing is written. My dear friend wrote me post-election,

“However, in the days since then, I have seen hope, not despair. Love, not hate. Courage and optimism, people coming together to work harder for what's good and right, not the divisive fear driven anger that we all feared. Maybe this will have more positive outcomes than I imagined possible.”

If you are hurt, mad, scared, disappointed, I feel you. Internalize it. Sit with it. Listen. If it feels right, Do Something About It! And so we shall see where perfection leads us. Knowing now one thing for certain — We must stay awake.